Heights

Sex is such a funny thing -
I mean gender - don't get me wrong,

but I wrote code because they

said that I couldn't, or shouldn't,

or some such, and because Blaekley

stood a little higher

to talk down to me.

Torchlight 2: A Lesson in Lost Lessons

I bought Torchlight 2 on launch. Yesterday, about two hours into it, I found myself wondering why I wasn't having fun. And... it's because Torchlight 2 was more of the same - just more Torchlight. Torchlight itself was an exercise in frustrated design - it had so much promise that was ruined by poor mechanics and a misunderstanding of fun. How?

Outing

They came to pray for her
whether or not she wanted it,
and she quietly told the
organist that she had her
communion wafers, see,
and the little anti-nausea pills
rattled in her hands.

Sakura

I've heard you shouldn't
look a cat in the eyes
because it scares them.

Insight

The little cogs and fly-wheels
break through, or we broke
in, or somehow they’re exposed,
pulsing gutly in nakedness,
and the daemon known as
‘algorithm’ is visible, chanting
in strange, artificial languages,
where such things have heft.

Changes (Bowie)

The car goes into park easily,

as such old things are wont

(being easy off, but troubled on),

and I would have no sympathy,

but the fact that yesterday

was work again, and I felt

far past my listed mileage.

Bliss Pover

They typo'd her name once, like it was a superpower,
binomial, like categorical science, like Faust's child,
good company for Buttercup et. al. Her actual name
was paean to her father and his birds, to plovers and gulls and
pigeons - flightly little things. We spoke in pidgin, birdless,
little words in broken lines on solid wires. She had
a superpower. It was self-destruction,
but I hear she's getting over that.

Construction 101

I've been working on a construction site for a few weeks now, cleaning and doing odd jobs. It's an interesting place full of interesting people, and I've composed a short list of rules for blending in, should you ever end up working construction yourself...

Resurrection, Part Deux

Well, it's unfortunate that I'm doing this again without having added any real content... But I'm back. For real this time. I made a short game for LD23 - a little text adventure - and I'm using the engine to develop a more robust game (tentatively titled "Scrap") that I've wanted to make for a long time. Right now, it's very primitive, but I've started working on a tutorial level. I'll post more here as I work on it, but the basic gist is simple: Marry a roguelike's design principles (random level design with many permutations and possibilities, a deep sense of brutal difficulty, and perma-death) with the narrative structure of a text-based adventure game. It's set in space, with the player character salvaging deserted husks of old spaceships, where the environment is just as deadly as any combat threat. There are a couple of other interesting design decisions that I'll detail later, but the goal is to make a narrative survival-salvage game that's unique and fresh every time you play it.

My Little Pony: Participation Is Magic

A short essay written for a digital media class about My Little Pony fans, and how the brony fandom is an interesting case study in participatory culture.

Resurrection

It's time to write again. I'll be migrating more content here over the next few days, from gaming stuff (a review of a game I'm hooked on) to non-gaming ventures (amateur creative writing and schoolwork). Next stop? A regular readership, perhaps!